Girls Are Doing the Monkey Dance

Dojorat linked to this article and video about girls fighting in school:

Two teenage girls went at it. Two adults allegedly watched and another minor videotaped the whole thing in Louisiana. The fight popped up on YouTube more than a week ago. Days later, in Lowell, Mass., local authorities discovered similar videos online and said local educators report about 80 percent of school fights are now girl against girl.

80% of fights at school are now girl against girl.  Wow.  When I was in school there were girl fights once or twice a year, they were very rare compared to fights between guys.  Fights at school were almost always what Sgt.  Rory Miller calls "Monkey Dance" fights.  That is, fights for status.  Fights at school are always broken up by adults, and are usually witnessed by other students.  From my own experience, Middle-school had small fights everyday, larger fights every couple of weeks.  High-school had one small fight every week, and larger fights every few months.  High-school was safer over all, but the fights, if they happened were more dangerous.  People also got " jumped," which was kind of like being mugged by a group, but it was usually people you knew.  I suspect that
"jumpings" went unreported most of the time.

Anyway, I'm willing to believe all that has changed.  Now 80% of high-school fights are between girls.  If you read the article above you'll see some silly theory about the Internet is causing fights.  I think the reason young women are fighting more is that they are taking on more responsibility and authority.  Specifically they are taking on the types of authority that require spacial dominance, something only men and prostitutes used to do.

Young women in the US who are in high-school today have mothers who "benefited" from Title 9, which mandated that girls have equal access to athletics.  They are second generation athletes.  There is also a new phenomenon of female clowning which seems to be part of the same change.  The clown school in San Francisco has 50% female enrollment.

I've tried raising this issue with friends to see what they make of it, and 4 people so far have quipped some thing like, "I guess guys these days are just wimps."

I'm not recommending this site, but if you want to get a quick sense of what's happening check out Girl Fights Dump.

I think a lot more boys these days have serious martial arts training and I think it has made them safer, wiser, and more skilled at avoiding fights.  I think this is particularly true for those boys who are the most naturally aggressive and competitive.  Many of these boys have also learned that they can gain social status by using their own marital prowess to convince other boys not to fight.

So I have a simple solution to the problem of '80% of high-school fights are between girls.' Teach martial arts in the schools!  If your school or school district is too narrow minded to appreciate the social and intellectual benefits of quality arts training, than of course get your daughters into private martial arts classes.  The sooner the better.

Anyway, let me know what you think of my, 'women are taking on new positions of authority which require spacial dominance' theory.  Or submit your own theory.  It's a brand new wide open field.